View todays celebrity birthdays and find out what happened in history today.
Nick Nolte, actor, 81; Brooke Adams, actress, 73; Mary Steenbergen, actress, 69; John Grisham, author, 67; Vince Neil, singer (Moley Crue) 61; Trinny Woodall, TV presenter, 58; Tjinder Singh, singer-songwriter (Cornershop) 54; Guy Man (Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo) musician (Daft Punk) 48; Seth Green, actor, 48; Dave Ferrel, bassist (Linkin Park), 45; Ralf Little, actor, 42; Jeremy Davis, bassist (Paramore) 37; Dani Harmer, actress, 33.
1855 – The ‘Devil’s Footprints’ mysteriously appeared in southern Devon when trails of hoof-like marks appeared overnight in the snow. Estimates of the total distance covered by the prints ranged from 40 to 100 miles. Houses, rivers, haystacks and other obstacles were allegedly travelled straight over, and the footprints appeared on the tops of snow-covered roofs and high walls, as well as leading up to and exiting various drain pipes with a diameter as small as 4 inches.
1886 – A peaceful demonstration by unemployed people started in Trafalgar Square and turned into a riot with looting in Oxford Street and Pall Mall.
1952 – Princess Elizabeth formally proclaimed herself Queen and Head of the Commonwealth and Defender of the Faith. Lords of the Council, numbering 150, representatives from the Commonwealth and officials from the City of London, including the Lord Mayor and other dignitaries witnessed the accession of the deceased king’s eldest daughter.
1965 – Health Minister Kenneth Robinson announced that cigarette advertisements were to be banned from British television.
1971 – At the Nuremberg International Toy Fair, a British plastics firm making educational toys was shown a board game which had been rejected by established companies. Invented by an Israeli telecommunications expert, Mordecai Meirowitz, the game, renamed ‘Mastermind’ by Invicta Plastics, sold over 55 million sets in some 80 countries, making it the most successful new game of the 70s.
1972 – The Albert Hall management cancelled a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention concert because of the ‘obscene lyrics’ of one of their songs. Fans demonstrated outside the hall.
1973 – Mohammed Shafiq became the first non-white P.C. to join the Lancashire Police.
1983 – Shergar, the Aga Khan’s Derby winner, was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million, which was never paid. The horse was never seen again.
1998 The death of the controversial politician, Enoch Powell, aged 85. He warned, in 1968, of the perils of high immigration with his ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
2012 – The death, aged 74, of John Fairfax, British ocean rower and adventurer who, in 1969, became the first person to row solo (in 180 days) across the Atlantic Ocean. He subsequently went on to become the first to row the Pacific Ocean (with Sylvia Cook) in 1971/2; with a row time of 361 days.
2017 – Socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson dies aged 45.
2019 – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos accuses The National Enquirer and its owner, American Media Inc, of blackmail over private messages detailing an extramarital affair.
To Yoda, backwards everyone else must speak.
Writing has become 1% inspiration, 99% not getting distracted by the internet.
The more cheese you have, the bigger the number of holes. The bigger the number of holes, the less cheese you have. The more cheese you have, the less cheese you have. #conundrum
The original title for The Breakfast Club was ‘Detention’.
Star Wars: A New Hope is all about Darth Vader’s kids getting him in trouble with his boss. First, his daughter steals the Death Star plans, and then his son blows it up.
The Capital of Portugal is Lisbon
The biggest film of 1983: Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi (Sci-Fi).
There are two types of people: those who divide people into two types, and those who don’t.
A very important part of staying organized is having a “junk drawer” – without a place to put miscellaneous items, they’ll just end up all over the place. Or, a “junk room”.
“The Dali Lama told me I would reach total consciousness on my death bed, so I’ve got that going for me.” #moviequotes
The fear of long words is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
Having too much sex can cause memory loss. I read that on page 437 in a medical journal on November 2006 at 6:15 pm. It was cloudy.
For every Spiderman, Batman, Ironman, etc there are probably at least ten potential unknown heroes who died in the first few weeks testing their new powers.
“There are some people who leave impressions not so lasting as the imprint of an oar upon the water.” – Kate Chopin
“There’s a very basic human, non-verbal aspect to our need to make music and use it as part of our human expression. It doesn’t have to do with body movements, it doesn’t have to do with articulation of a language, but with something spiritual.” – John Williams
“Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes. There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the Earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.” – Steven Spielberg
“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveller is unaware.” – Martin Buber
“There’s no greater way to gain an audience’s sympathy than by being unfortunate.” – Seth Green
“Life without industry is guilt, and industry without art is brutality.” – John Ruskin
“Man’s constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you suffer that you really understand.” – Jules Verne
1993 – The Holbeck Hall Hotel in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, fell into the sea following a landslide, making news around the world.
1805 – The first Trooping of the Colour took place on Horse Guards Parade. It was Edward VII who moved Trooping the Colour to its June date, because of the vagaries of British weather.
2012 – The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant took place on the Tideway of the River Thames, as part of the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.